Personal Life Coaching
Personal Life Coaching provides you a safe space to:
Access your heart and gut intelligence
Access your personal power
Access your voice
Align yourself with your purpose
Attain your goals
Change your Mind
Create a vision of your future
Feel your connection to a world larger than yourself
Get to know yourself
Grieve
Heal
Learn how to work with, rather than against, who you are
Learn tools to access the power of your mind
Let go of what no longer serves you
Make choices that align with your values
Prioritize your passions
Release emotions, resentments and fears
Relieve stress and anxiety
Stop hating your body
Listening to your inherent wisdom draws you toward wholeness and health.
As your body and mind address and integrate what you've been resisting, releasing blocks and obstacles, you become able to move forward.
In this process, you let go of limiting perceptions and stories and access greater self trust and confidence.
As you move through your fears, you open your heart and your attention to your inner being and a wisdom that is always there, but not always tapped. From this space, shifts take place that unlock areas where you have been stuck and allow you to evolve into your greatest self.
Marianne Williamson said; "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure."
Susan leads you to the realization that you are in fact powerful beyond measure and are therefore the creator of your experience. Not only does this work cultivate deep serenity and fulfillment, but it also brings about very real results in all areas of your life.
Working with the whole person to balance the interrelated areas of your life can include career choices, change and development, self image and esteem, finances, relationships, health and wellness, as well as spirituality and connection.
Susan has a special ability to hold and remind you of your greatness when you are playing small, resulting in deep, lasting satisfaction in life.
Get Over Old Patterns
Learn how to Access and Master the Power of your mind
Do What you Wish You Would Do
Live your Life on Purpose
Areas of Focus through working with Susan:
Body - Health, Fitness, Feeling Great, Pain management, Healing, Making Peace, Loving your body
Mind - Master Your psychology, Overcome addiction, Respond rather than React, Think for yourself rather than against
Spirit - Tune in to Your Intuitive Guidance System, Build Trust, Know Yourself, work in partnership with The Universe
Heal Relationships,
Communication skills and conflict resolution
Balance yourself and your life,
Gain Confidence & Self-Trust
Right Livelihood,
Abundance and Prosperity,
Spiritual Awakening.
My specialties are the core beliefs that inform my work as a coach. It is not necessary that you be familiar with any of these tools. Coaching is about what you believe, not what I believe. I do, however, speak these "languages" through my own experience.
Hypnosis - Hypnosis brings the subconscious on board with the conscious goals.
The subconscious is and always has been running the show. Using the tools of hypnosis reveals the reasons behind behaviors that have not served you, manages physical pain and healing, releases unwanted programming and teaches the power of your mind and how to use it to reach your goals.
NLP- Neural Linguistic Programming is basically hypnosis without the trance. It is a chance for your brain to accept and learn a new pattern that serves you better than the one you have gotten stuck in. It is a powerful tool to use when changing stories, patterns and responses, resulting in more control over ingrained habits and emotions.
The 12 Steps - 12 step programs for recovery offer a basic program for how to live a sane life. They spell out what you have power over and what you do not, how to ask for and accept help, how to grow up and take responsibility for your own happiness and well-being, and how to know yourself and be who you want to be going forward. The 12 steps offer a spiritual program to access serenity and joy in spite of life happening and the choices others make. I worked with people in the program for over a decade.
The Course in Miracles - The Course is a manual for undoing how we see our world. It is a guide for forgiving everything and taking responsibility for the world we create and how we choose to interpret it. The Course teaches us to embrace and love every seeming obstacle so that it can be released, removing the blocks to Love's awareness. blame, resentment and fear keep us stuck and miserable. The key to healing relationships is to understand that everything is either love, or a request for love. The Course is one of many, many guides to the same Universal Truths. I am a student and teacher of the course.
Loving Your Body - One of my specialties is coaching you to build a better relationship with your body. I have found that the norm is to withhold love and acceptance from ourselves until our bodies are different. This attitude is deeply painful and keeps you stuck in a downward spiral of shame. It is the negative motivation paradigm that our culture has had in place too long, that does not serve us. I can help you love and honor your body which makes for a much happier, healthier and fulfilling life for you if you are ready and willing to release the beliefs that keep you at war with your body.
Sacred Contracts - Caroline Myss coined this term with her book of the same name which was about her work with Archetypes and how they can give you a user's manual to your life if you know how to read them. Your Contracts are what's behind your repeating patterns. Life becomes easier when you work with instead of against your contracts.
How it Works:
Coaching is $150 per hour and is conveniently offered over the phone, Skype or in person. I work with teens, couples and adults.
"Susan is fabulous at helping you see the "reality" of your situation and provides compassionate guidance and tangible ways to assist you in transforming yourself and therefore your life. She's amazingly talented. Let her help you help yourself."
Brenda Zagula
Living Well Physical Therapy
Libertyville, IL
"Working with Susan has been a revelation for me."
Your friends and family love you and will temper their opinions of you and your actions and will not always ask you the difficult questions. Working with Susan has been a revelation for me. She routinely asks me the tough questions and holds me accountable for my actions in the present and the future that I am working to create. Without the work that we have done, I would be stuck in the mud not realizing the power I have to change my life and the lives of those around me.
C.Cowan-LeRoy
Mundelein, IL
"Working with Susan has completely changed the direction of my life."
Susan has helped me get out of my own way, examining the stumbling blocks that were holding me back. She is methodical and practical, yet honors my emotional and spiritual sides as well. With her help I have been able to both envision where I wanted my life to go and take the necessary steps to make that path a reality. I have learned to prioritize my passions and my natural gifts and let them lead me into right livelihood. What a gift!
Anne Clough
Algonquin, IL
"In just 6 months of coaching with Susan,
I experienced more personal growth and progress than I did in over 5 years with a Clinical Psychologist"
"Not because my prior counselor was not educated and skilled, but because Susan is so amazing. Susan has just the right balance of pushing me to do what needs to get done, and giving me the room to work at my own pace. She has the ability to hear what I am saying even though I don’t have the right words. She listened to me and helped me find my true path. With her encouragement I was able to move my life in the right direction. She truly cares about me and poured her (and what felt like God’s) love on me every time we talked."
Dorothy Deemer
Licensed Massage Therapist
Wheeling, IL
"One of the best things I ever did for myself was to take Susan’s offer to act as my Empowerment Coach seriously."
"Susan is one of the most loving, clear and compassionate people I’ve had the honnour of connecting with. She unerringly followed through on her word - she helped me articulate my vision and then she held it for me when I would momentarily lose it. She held me accountable to myself when I would fall into my swamp of despair and she not only celebrated me, but she helped me celebrate myself when I would surface, rise up from the muck and be in the light.
Just knowing Susan was there for me every week helped me stay connected to my innate inner wisdom and focused on my path. Thanks to Susan’s keen direction, I have been able to identify and shed some light on my gremlins - the good news is – hey, they aren’t nearly as scary and limiting as I have lived my life believing.
May I suggest that if the thought has occurred that your empowerment is something you would like help embodying - listen to your deepest desires and then contact Susan! I know I’ll be coming back for more of her loving coaching because the art of being empowered is an on going journey."
Lynn Woodman
Voice, Speech, Presence & Presentation Coach
Toronto, Canada
Coaching is about igniting passion and motivating people to choose their greatest selves.
"Coaching is an art, and it's far easier said than done. It takes courage to ask a question rather than offer up advice, provide an answer or unleash a solution." Brene Brown
Coaches and the people they coach know that for the future to be different, we need to change the way we do things in the present.... More often, changes involve shifts in attitudes, thinking, perceptions, and behavior.
"I never cease to be amazed at the power of the coaching process to draw out the skills or talent that was previously hidden within an individual, and which invariably finds a way to solve a problem previously thought unsolvable." John Russell
"The actual awareness that the person opposite you is an entire world and isn't lacking anything, and that you yourself are an entire world, allows you to coach him and to think about him in a positive way, from a place of reality and abundance."
" I am very appreciative to Susan for helping me work through some worries that were getting in the way of me living a more full and happy life. Susan has a very loving approach on how to handle situations that leaves me feeling more peaceful instead of stressed. I have a new perspective towards people in my life and also towards myself and what is expected of me. Letting go of the "shoulds" really helps!"
"I am once again passionate about life. "
"I was referred to Susan by a friend of mine who was going through a divorce the same time as I was. Susan was amazing from the very beginning holding me accountable and helping me to grow.
I learned a lot from Susan and it wasn't easy. She is compassionate and heart centered with a deep caring soul.
In helping me through some very difficult times she used her wisdom, her knowledge and her intuition in a way that not many others are capable of. I was quite mixed up and suffering from a lot of fear and anxiety.
I was not only going through a divorce but my relationships with my children were strained and a business I spent 20 years building was in turmoil. Susan helped me calm my mind and gain perspective and accomplish the three most important things in my life and that was growing my relationship with my children, recovering my business and my love life. I can happily state today that I am married to a beautiful woman who is truly my soulmate, my business has never been stronger nor ever looked brighter and the relationships with my kids is better than I could have imagined. If someone would have told me 4 years ago this was possible I wouldn't have believed them but Susan believed in me and helped me find the way. The work wasn't always easy but she was there to help me along the way. I learned I have much to be grateful for and one of the things I will always be most grateful for is Susan."
DB
Canada
"I left a job, a career of thirty odd years, because it no longer resonated with me or my values."
"From when I first started working with Susan as my coach to now, I feel like I have become a completely different person. I have learned who I am and have learned how to live with integrity - putting my own values first. Susan has gently guided me to stretch into this new me.
Unlike several other coaches I had earlier, Susan addresses the whole me, the holistic being that I am. I am never quite sure the direction our telephone conversation will take, but always hang up feeling I know and like me a little better.
I left a job, a career of thirty odd years, because it no longer resonated with me or my values. I could never have done this without her support and championing for me. With Susan's help I learned to trust that I would be shown the right direction to go and now I have. Some of my changes have been physical as I have regained my health and fitness and morphed from a size 14 to size 8. At 58 I look like I did at 40. I've always been adventuresome but now I am doing things I never thought of doing before. I am excited to be on the brink of something great - becoming someone I didn't know I could be.
Thank you, Susan, for being the incredible, loving coach you are."
With much love,
Terri MacKinnon
Ontario, Canada
"... I finally took the leap many never take and started my own business."
Susan Barker is a great coach. She helped me to better see and be my true self, reconnect with what's important to me, recognize my strengths, remember the big picture, set goals, remove obstacles and be more accountable.
Such powerful lessons lead to concrete results. For example, I had long been interested in sustainability issues and had lots of ideas about going into business for myself---someday. But with Susan's guidance, I came to realize it was my calling and that I was ready. Last fall, I finally took the leap many never take and started my own business: Green CPA, LLC.
Another example: two areas I needed to work on were networking and public speaking. Susan encouraged me to join Toastmasters which just so happens to address both areas. I have already done several speeches and am currently the chapter treasurer.
Susan's patient insight and practical guidance have made a big difference in my life. i would highly recommend Susan barker, Certified Empowerment Coach to anyone.
Glenn Reed
Green CPA LLC
Prospect Heights, IL
"Susan has been instrumental in helping me to see my shortcomings and my strengths."
"Without judgment, Susan has shared her insights that have shown me alternative ways of seeing things that were causing me heartache and frustration with myself and the people in my life. Her honesty and her support have enabled me to see more clearly what I really want to make happen and to help me to enforce my boundaries. She helps redirect my energy from the negative places it can sometimes go to a more healthy and positive bend that benefits me in that it moves me from being stuck to being willing to make things happen using my talents and gifts. She is great at helping me to see that I am a powerful, wonderful, loving person and that I am heading in the direction that I want to go with the intention of meeting with great success when I get there."
Linda Kahn Stremmel
Certified Coach
Wilmette, IL